Two Kids Brewing

Do what you love.Rob and Sam Dufau — 25-year-old lovers of beer, brewing, and each other — take that as more than just a platitude. For this husband-and-wife team, it’s a dare that led them both to jump the tracks from unfulfilling careers in the science and food service arena to open their own upcoming company, Two Kids Brewing.

Before taking the leap, Rob, a molecular biologist, was suffering the doldrums of day jobbery after leaving a dream opportunity at his previous employer due to a nightmare boss. Meanwhile, Sam was watching her degree in landscape architecture collect dust and preparing to transition from the restaurant industry into real estate. Such situations might drive many to drink, but it drove them to brew.

The logo for Two Kids illustrates their feelings about opening a brewing company. It displays a door that’s slightly ajar, conveying a sense of sneaking out to do something out-there. In their words, to do something your parents might not approve of, but will definitely be worth it and provide some wild stories.

The first step outside the door will be setting up a Kickstarter campaign geared for September to amass some funds to add to their own start-up stockpile. After that, they’ll go about finding a space, which will likely be located in Mira Mesa. Home to AleSmith, Green Flash, Hess Brewing, Rough Draft Brewing Company, and Wet ‘N Reckless; the community is already well saturated with breweries. Rob and Sam see this as a plus given how supportive of each other most brewers are. Also, being that they live in the community, there’s the bonus of being able to ride their bikes to work.

On the brewing front, their main goals are to explore the lighter side of craft brewing, dispelling a misconception that for something to be craft or special, it needs to be incredibly strong, heavy, or bitter. Additionally, they recognize the ability of lower alcohol beers to convert macrobeer drinkers into crafies. They also plan to produce lesser seen styles like a California Common. That lager, dubbed Sam, will be one of their core beers.

Two Kids’ other core beers will be an ordinary bitter, biere de garde, India pale ale, and their most award-winning brew to-date, a sessionable chocolate stout. Rob and Sam also plan to produce numerous special release and seasonal beers: saisons and amped up versions of Sam and their bitter. Some of those specialties will be bottled in very small quantities, but most of their beer will be available only in kegs and almost exclusively at their tasting room.

In their first year, the duo plan on producing 100 barrels using a one-and-a-half barrel brewing system. If they are successful, they hope to ramp up to 450 barrels per year in the next year or two. As of now, Rob and Sam think they’ll be able to get Two Kids open by spring of 2013.